NaBloPoMo: 5 ways the weekend went sideways

The bold face bits are the highlights in case you wanna skim. It is NABLOPOMO, after all. 

1. Friday morning panic. Id' overlooked an email about a mass the girls were expected to attend for their OCIA class (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, getting their sacraments). The email updates, sharing what's covered in class, well - I don't read them. Shock. I didn't know there was a 4:30 mass proceeded by 3:15, accompanied by their sponsors. Shit. 

I tried for a few minutes
to get Gumby rolled
 up and stored back in his
 bag. The weekend
would feel better if I accomplished
some home organization
task. He's been
 sprawled out in the living room
 since our tailgate over a
 month ago. He was
 getting handsy with me. I needed
to wait till reinforcements arrived.

*it was fine: We've been confused:  do we choose godparents or just a sponsor? Coach got clarification. One sponsor. We chose our top 2, and reached out. An aunt couldn't make it, so I stepped in. Our dear friend, Tim, attended. 

2. Friday morning, I texted a friend:  "Chat?" She's an adoptive mom who's so supportive. I know her Friday schedule is light. She called me, but I was on my run and Reg had just called me. I didn't realize until the next day that I'd missed her call. 

3.  My SIL texted me Friday morning:  "Can we host Christmas?" 

Huh -it's our turn? One less thing maybe, but we don't entertain often- don't have a huge group of friends. I was looking forward to hosting. Plus, gathering our crew (many 21+), driving an hour there/ back isn't ideal. Curly has a b-ball tournament- game times TBD.

But:  My BIL's 50th bday 12/27. Thursday we'd texted his sibs, offering to host the 20th so they could celebrate with friends the 27th. They chose the 27th. I get it, but the 20th then? 

Trees in our area
 are looking kinda
barren, but I like that
this one is a holdout.

* resolved-ish:  This SIL is lovely, but likes to get her way. I wanted to be flexible, but I've not hosted in years and it's our turn. I can wait till next year, but who knows - I could have a parent in hospice or Curly might play b-ball in a college tournie. I asked SIL to call me -  better than texting. I shared my feelings, saying Hey, if you want his bday - we can do the 20th. She's gonna see if BIL's bestie can  even attend on the 27th. By waiting most of the day to wrap my brain around it, I felt more prepared to say GO AHEAD AND HOST. We decided to wait and see.

4. My contact lenses felt horrible, so I'd take a break and put them in. I'd get grouchy because they hurt. Hey, these are one-a-days, so I could toss them - but they tear prematurely, so I try to conserve when possible. Was it because I was tired? I went to bed really late (well worth it, because I was chatting with Delilah) and up crazy early maybe cuz I'd had funky, not-great late night snacks. *(see what I did there:  I squeezed in a two-for-one bummer:  rotten sleep and rotten contacts)

5. Coach hopped on an earlier flight on standby. Amazing, because it was also his birthday. But -I wasn't prepared to celebrate. He wasn't due home till 10 pm. No big dinner made, or cake. We'd celebrated last weekend, but still!  

*****

Have you fallen down on the birthday celebration front? Do you like to host holidays, or happy to be off the hook?

NaBloPoMo: IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR! I'm ready, buy is my blood pressure?

Long time readers - do you know what I'm referring to? 

It's that time of year - the best time of year . . . 

Curly's senior year, high school basketball season.

There's a story about Curly's last year season that I've not shared, but I'll post about it soon.  

Bottom line:  the school hired the varsity girls a new coach. 'Lucy' is a woman who was the assistant coach on the history making compete-at-state season a few years ago. Curly loves Lucy, and Lucy confided in Curly that the only reason she's coaching varsity girls is because of Curly. (Lucy was the assistant when Mini played with her noodle arms and her 'This is fun' approach to basketball. Also an enjoyable experience, just different than Curly's competitive team). 

5 seniors play on this year's team. Curly's our tallest at 5'10".  She's often the ball handler, so not under the basket to rebound. Well, she is  . . . when she flies out of no where. 

Go time:  Our first game was Monday - it wasn't pretty, but we won. Then last night was the start of the T-giving tournie. We're hosting. 

Curly missed plenty of shots, but she played well. She had 30 of our 57 points. We were down by like 13 heading into the 4th quarter. We stepped up our game and staged a comeback. I was shaking like a leaf. Curly scored the basket to get us in OT. At the end of the first OT, she put up a buzzer beater to win it. It went in, but it was half a second too late. Didn't count. Our momentum took us all the way through double overtime. We WON.

This is a 10 second clip that Reg texted me at 11:20 pm. He's Curly's biggest fan. He watched her game. This is the buzzer beater that didn't count. Look at the bottom of the screen - who is that fan with the thinning hair? Yep, it's me - cheering like wild. When he texted, I was upstairs giving Curly a back rub, because she'd texted that she couldn't unwind to go to sleep. Welcome to the club. 

One of the best parts:  the football team had their awards thing, so most of them trickled into the girls' b-ball game afterwards from the auditorium. Very rarely do students (or anyone aside from parents) come to these games. A student cheering section! Curly said she couldn't hear what plays they were calling. 

I was gonna post something else, but I can't go to sleep NOW, too pumped up. Came home to draft this. Now you know. I'm a basketball adrenaline junkie. Curly said the team was teasing the coach after the game:  Cry, cry, cry! She said she was so happy, but could they just play like that in the 1st quarter next time? 

*****

Any suggestions with what I do with my time next year when Curly's away at college and I don't have her volleyball or basketball games to attend?  (deleting emails is a place to start . . . ) Do you get riled up at high school sports?

NaBloPoMo: Meet my Mini-me 'Mini' (cute photo overload)

 Mini - 21, senior at Notre Dame. We're not: 'ND is the one and only school' type (unlike my dad/siblings). When she got accepted, Ed begged her to tell my dad - "I'm not going there. IU's business school is better."

I joked, well she can't go there unless she gets the Evans Scholarship. 

Then she got in. Like winning the lottery. W only pay for food. She's met 16 fun, hilarious, chill (but ambitious overachievers AF) girlfriends . . . but cried for 6 weeks after drop off:

1. when I asked what was wrong:  I don't feel comfortable.  What would make you feel comfortable?:  You, and my friends. (I broke the news to Coach: "I have to move there.")  

2. My theory:  Mini's goofy. The ND chicks seemed put together. Once she showed them her true colors, they were like, Yeah, You're in. We love you. She's never been happier. 

Fun facts:  first girl after 3 boys. 'Frist word 'bow' as in put a bow in my hair so I can see. I was here for it.

She's an artist, loves to read - admits now she stayed up all night reading Series of Unfortunate Events in her bed when she was 4th grade? Played sports in high school, mostly for fun. Irish danced, 5-14 yrs. Plays the Irish fiddle, and traveled to Ireland to compete with a traditional music ceili band once. 

Quick witted. I texted her a few years ago:  "Your former teammate Lily made her 1,000th point!" Lily was a freshman when Mini was a junior. Lily was crazy tall, but didn't know how to play, so they worked with her. 

Mini texted back:  I walked, so that she could run. 

I died. 

We hope she's independently wealthy to hire a chef, as she's a danger to herself and others in the kitchen. She's a slob, who loves to shop (our fav activity, but need to dial it back). She has a heart of gold.

Tank recently told the younger girls, "I'm excited. I get to see my best friend today." They were like, Who? "Mini!"

Over the summer, she took the train to her internship. Two women sat behind her. Mini overheard their conversation:  in-laws, mothering young kids, fashion, babysitters, and husbands. She tried to sit near them from then on. "Their conversations are so bougie. It's free entertainment!" 

Coach was watching: 'What Would You Do' with John Quinones. 

Mini:  DO NOT WATCH THIS. IT'S TOO EXTREME. 

Ed climbed inside Mini's crib
 and Tank hanging off the side.

She says, if ever two friends are unable to agree on something or at odds, she'll step in with a fake microphone and whisper, Hello, I'm John Quinones and I'm just wondering how you feel this will get resolved, . . . .

*****

Do you enjoy overhearing chats while communing?  Who in your life A. looks just like you, or B. is quick witted?  A fav Mini story?

Our Christmas card photo '05: 
Halloween - a jawa,
Chewey, Yoda, and Leia.

pics:  The yellow gingham was my duckie outfit, Most pics are she and Tank -like the one when it looks like she's picking bugs out of his hair, who doesn't like to watch TV in a laundry basket, & my personal favorite - when she
came up from the basement sad because the boys had stuffed a ton of balls in her pjs.

NaBloPoMo: 5 gratitude weekend moments

The main idea is in bold in case you're skimming: 

1.  Coach flew to NC early Friday morning to take a class. He and I usually spend Friday afternoon together. The girls get picked up straight from school by a driver (this was a service paid for by DCFS before the adoption and now we pay - it's worth its weight in gold), taken to individual therapy, and then brought back around 6:40. I was grateful that he'd be home Sat. night. I could manage one day solo, right? 

2.  My good friend, Delilah, was able to get together Friday night, and it was so great to catch up. We don't see each other often, even though we live a few minutes away. We do have some epic phone chats though. I intended to clean up my kitchen before she arrived, but I didn't get started working on a story that I want to submit for publication until late in the day. I decided Delilah would forgive my cluttered counter (aren't these the best kinds of friends?), so I stuck with my writing project. 

See the stacks of paper? Can we
pretend the filtered light
 coming in softens the look of the mess?

3.  When Delilah arrived, I was in the study reviewing my story. I asked her to step into my 'office' - it's a mess. Chapters with notes and suggestions from my writing group people are stacked all over the place, waiting for me to make updates to my saved document. Anyway, I showed her a glimpse into my process, and I described the funny story I was working on (she enjoys my stories, and I lose track of which she's heard). I scrolled to the beginning, where I rattle off 3 historic moments from 1987, ending with 'And my family experienced a small Christmas miracle.'

Stack and stacks. It's
time for an intervention.

Lightening bolt moment:  I could conclude the story in a similar fashion with historic moments from the year when the situation was resolved. 

4.  Saturday morning I woke up, delayed my workout and focused on that story ending. I think it works well. My small writing group has already heard this story. They're the ones who suggested I try to get it published (with a few touch ups). I'll share it with my big writers group in early December. Feels great to have one of the two writing group submissions done for Dec.

5.  I managed to do most of a strength workout, then gathered the little girls. We had to attend a parent meeting for Coach's varsity b-ball team. I wasn't late despite pushing the envelope to get more of my workout complete. I feared we'd be late for family therapy, but the meeting was fast and we bolted. Family therapy session with Rae went well. Coach was on speaker phone over his lunch at his course, which was a bonus. More on the progress made later. 

BONUS: I was walking out the door to go to mass and Coach texted. He'd hopped on an earlier flight when his class ended early. He'd be home in a few hours, around 6:20 pm! (vs getting home at 10 pm)

*****

What went well in your neck of the woods over the weekend?  Can you work in a room that's this messy?

NaBloPoMo: the middles: Tank (and Mini next time)

That's 10 lbs of baby. The
night before he arrived.

I got sidetracked on the kid intros . . . meet probably our 2 funniest kids (OK, meet Tank, b/c I'm moving Mini's intro to another post - a lengthy combo). Not sure what I was eating or drinking while expecting them (they're not twins - they're 16 mos apart), but they both have a sharp, quick sense of humor. 

Tank - 23 yrs. next month. He graduated (business) from Creighton in May. My largest baby (see above:  What was I eating?), weighing 10 lbs 3 oz - early. (fun fact:  all 6 were induced). Can you imagine if they'd let him balloon in there a few more days? 

As a tot, he had an 80% speech delay. My friend and I nicknamed him Tatanka  from Dances with Wolves, because,  

1. buffalo sized child, and 

2. the language barrier, using hand signals was how he spoke till he logged many hours in speech therapy. He said "applesauce" well enough in the grocery store at age 4 (finally!) that I bought a bunch of it.

His initial blog name:  Tatanka, morphed into Tank.  

I stumbled on this comic strip years after
I named two of my children  . . . um,
wink, wink, nudge, nudge. IFYYK

He's a worker bee. Attended HS in the mornings after it partial re-opened during covid, then warehouse work in the afternoons. Ch-ching. In the summer, he rarely took a day off:  warehousing, caddying, and landscaping. 

He's also an Irish musician (wooden, open-holed flute), a lover of history (reads textbooks for kicks), master imitator (could be a stand up comedian), and a retired Irish dancer  . . . with an untucked shirt, crooked tie, and sticking out tongue - he looked like the town drunk on stage. 

He has ADD, and OCD (lots of ABCs, and his path

Favorite all time
Tank photo.

hasn't been easy, but despite the OCD diagnosis in college, he perseveres) a math learning disability, an unending curiosity/need to learn, and is very frugal. One of my more sensitive kids - the only one to cry at preschool drop off. 

Long time readers, recall the high school ski trip? He begged to go skiing with his best buddy's family. He played the 'HS sucks b/c of covid, everything is cancelled'. I caved. 

Um, we busted him when the mom texted in a group chat:  The boys made it fine. Jay sent this view from their room. I'd been duped. Not a family trip - just he, his buddies, and beer. Classic. 

Ski trip - there was a grandpa,
who do you think bought the beer? 
I wondered if this was a random
 rent a grandpa for the picture.

Mini, a junior in HS -sitting in the kitchen, when I put 2 and 2 together, she fell off her chair laughing. I wasn't so amused. I made him call me constantly to check in and waited to tell Coach until after Tank was home safe. 

Tank lives across the street from Ed downtown and works for a big insurance/risk management business. He told them upfront, "I'll be in the office everyday. I won't learn if I'm not here."

*****

Do you remember Tank's sneaky ski trip? If you've been here for a while, what's your fav Tank story? Did I miss anything?

NaBloPoMo: Riddle me this

While in Tampa briefly last week, I went for a run, and spotted this sign. If you're from Tampa, maybe you know something about this business. It's close to the airport. How could an entire business exist with a singular focus on Bear Hobbies. What is a bear hobby? A stuffed animal? Am I missing something?

*****

The space between the white house
and the sidewalk - not very big.

There's a house around the corner from us that has been on and off the market for years. Last year, they listed part of their property for sale. It's hard to demonstrate this in a photo without walking onto their lawn to get a better angle. Trust me, they're inviting someone to buy up their front lawn, and what? - build a house on it? Surprise, surprise, they've had no takers. 

*****

Halloween. I own one orange shirt.
You're looking at it. I've owned
 it for decades. I wear it
one day a year. I met a friend
 for lunch. She showed up dressed
in an orange shirt and black cardigan.
 "Look at us? You can't beat the
room mom out of us."
~ that cracked me up. 

I decided 10/30th-time for a haircut. I intended to reach out to my hairdresser. She's a curly girl specialist, which means she's technically Curly's stylist. I gave her a try once and discovered, to my delight, that I love the way she does my stupidly thin hair. 

Living with undiagnosed celiac disease most of my adult life (till I had an endoscopy in '15) caused my hair to thin - understatement. No amount of coaxing or vitamins or anything will convince it to fill back in. 

Anyway, the next day, my hair looked phenomenal (for me, anyway). Why, then, do I not trick my few remaining follicles with the Jedi Mind Trick of, "Hmm, I think I need a haircut," more often? Never fails - once I've had the Haircut Thought, my hair looks amazing. 

*****

Any businesses near you that boggle the mind? Would you, could you - buy someone's front lawn and build on it? Does your hair have Murphy's Laws tendencies?  What's boggling your mind recently?

NaBloPoMo: My Four-Ef'd-up-Things Friday

1. Show me the money the postmark:  Purchases at Costco qualified me for a mail-in rebate. I saved my receipt, intended to mail it. I waited, knowing I'd shop there again and have MORE receipts - bigger rebate. 

Halloween, I woke up:  Does that Costco thing need to be postmarked today?" Then I lost my focus. I thought about it the next day.  

It needed to be postmarked 10/31st. I'm on a two year streak of Not mailing my receipt. Will I break the streak next year? Stay tuned. 

2. This was key:  Thurs. morning, I had to drive Kay to school. 

Curly usually drives her, but forget to tell me that she had an early morning meeting Thursday. I was scrambling. I loaded a tot and off we went - racing to be back before other tots arrived. The garage keypad broke last year, maybe two years ago. 

I ordered a new one. Coach waited a year and then put it up. But - it didn't work, or he couldn't find it? He put the original one back up, and declared:  Look, it works. 

Me:  It works in the warm weather, wait till winter. 

Does our house need dark gray garage
 doors, or should we stick with white?

Guess what? It's cold, so not working.

Curly's opener hasn't been working, so she put GW's opener in her car.

I unlocked the minivan on the driveway before I drove Kay to school, so when I got back I could use the minivan's built in opener. When I got back, I realized I'd clicked the LOCK button. The minivan key fob was in the house. 

My heart stopped. Was I locked out?

The black streak down
 the door - can't be good.

I ran to the back door. Unlocked - THANK GOODNESS.

I'm now shopping for new garage doors, openers (our current one sounds like it might dislodge and land on someone's head), and a smart door opener. Merry Christmas to us. 

Care to vote on a door color? A few years ago we got new dark grey siding. The house is red brick. The windows:  trimmed in white. The house used to be white. The garage door is still white. Do we get a garage door to match the siding, or do we stick with a white garage door to match the trim? 

3.  Ef . . . fruit snacks!:  I went to Costco Tuesday night. I got an email Wednesday night, reminding me that I signed up to drop off 90 fruit snacks for the grade school's pizza day fundraiser. "#%$@*&^(&$#@" 

Thursday after babysitting, I ran back to Costco. 

4. Unintentionally hoarding emails:  Where was I when everyone learned about deleting emails? I never knew it was necessary. Maybe I thought they'd just gradually disappear. I rarely delete emails. I have 47k emails, give or take several thousand. If you know how to delete all unread (or some category) from a yahoo account - please advise. 

*****

Tell me your email managing techniques and why you think I'm so clueless. Do you have windows in your garage doors? Do you like them? Do you have smart locks - are they smarter than you? Manage to lock yourself our of your home? Between email, snail mailing receipts, and nonworking keypads, do you wonder if the Shenanigans have been trapped in a time warp?